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10 Av 5764 - July 28, 2004 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Beware of Yichud in X-ray Rooms

We have been asked to alert the public to the serious stumbling block in terms of yichud during x-raying or CT scanning, and similar procedures, since Health Ministry regulations require the doors of the x-ray room to close and lock automatically. According to Maran HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv, HaRav Shmuel Halevy Wosner and HaRav Nissim Karelitz, shlita, this clearly violates the prohibition against yichud. Therefore, when there is no way to arrange for a female technician to take x-rays for women or a male technician to take x-rays for men, one must enter the room accompanied by a shomer able to save the person being x-rayed from the prohibition of yichud. (The accompanyer should stand behind the protective screen or wear a lead vest, which experts say makes the level of radiation insignificant, except in the case of pregnant women.)

Even in cases where there is an additional door for the staff (which generally remains unlocked) maranan shlita hold this is insufficient since they do not enter at all due to the danger of radiation, and medical staff members are particularly cautious since they are exposed to this danger on a daily basis.

However in many hospitals and other facilities where staff members can enter without risk and do enter, generally no prohibition of yichud applies. (Numerous details apply in such cases and vary from one facility to the next and even from one shift to the next, but this is not the place to expand on the topic.)

(signed)

Sariel Rosenberg, Av Beis Din of HaRav Nissim Karelitz' beis din

Tzvi Avrohom Vale, author of Pesach Habayis -- Yichud

Chagai Eliashiv Na'eh, author of Shaar Hayichud

 

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